Club Newsletter

January 2019

from the top

Hello fellow woodturners! My name is Joe Payne and I am your new club president. I want to personally thank you for the opportunity to lead your club in the coming years.

I have lived full-time in Southwest Florida for nearly 8 years now. The rest of my life was spent living in Central Indiana where I was born and raised in a small farming town called Rushville.

Having started woodturning only a year ago, I still have a great deal to learn in this amazing craft. I have even more to learn leading this organization in the coming years. Fortunately you and I both are not alone. This club has some remarkable members that possess an incredible array of knowledge and experience. I often have to remind myself that it's always better to ask with ten fingers than to learn with nine.

I speak for all of our club officers when I say that the door is always open. If you ever have a question or concern, please do not hesitate to ask any one of us. We're here to serve you and your great woodturning club.

This month's Featured Work

Shamelessly I have submitted my own work as the featured work for this month's issue. Perhaps there are other members willing to send me a single, high quality photo of their work? Send me an email and I'll make sure you make the front page!

recent club events

Annual Christmas Party

December 6th, 2018This year's Christmas party was held at the usual Olive Garden restaurant located in Cape Coral, Florida. With 18 people in attendance, the Olive Garden staff did an excellent job keeping everyone well stocked with both food and drinks.

Alan Welch was presented with a custom wall plaque commemorating his many years of dedicated service as the club president.

Thanks to everyone who attended and worked so hard to make this annual tradition a big success.

January 2019 Club Meeting

The January meeting is always a big one and this year was no exception.

Prior to the start of the meeting, raffle tickets for this month's door prize were handed out. Ray Sequin was kind enough to offer a signed piece created by a professional turner from his own collection. What a gift!

This year's first meeting started off with the official club votes for new board officers Joe Payne as club president and Dan Alvo as club treasurer. Returning board members Phil Edilla (Secretary) and John Gerald (Director At-Large) were also voted in.

Next up for discussion was a new proposed upgrade to the video presentation equipment in the club shop. A written proposal was provided by incoming president Joe Payne and was previously approved by the other board officers. The proposal was voted and accepted by the attending club members. President Joe Payne will coordinate and handle implementation of the upgrades as set forth in the written proposal.

Show-And-Tell for this month consisted of nearly 30 pieces of beautiful woodturning craftsmanship. It took some time, but we managed to get through all of the pieces on display.

The meeting concluded with the raffle drawing for the monthly door prize. The lucky winner was happy to receive his turning gift.

show and tell contributors (not in order)

Featured presenter

This month's presentation featured Richard Rose and his skilled techniques for both general finishes and colored dyes. Richard's presentation was organized, easy to follow and very educational.

The presentation even included a few examples of how colored dyes can be used to add dramatic effect to any turning project. Thanks so much Richard for taking time to share your expertise with the club.

tips and tricks

This section is something new I thought everyone would enjoy. Each month we'll feature a nifty tip or trick related to woodturning.

Sanding speed matters!

Regardless of the speed you use for turning your wood, you should always slow it down if you intend to sand using the lathe. While there is always some debate with any aspect of woodturning, the general consensus is you should be spinning 300-700 rpm for sanding. Sanding at slower speeds gives you several advantages such as:

Sandpaper gets more chance to "grab" the wood and remove it.

Less likely that the sandpaper will "jump" over any torn grain sections of the piece. This in turn reduces the chance of leave some areas of your work with a different smoothness than other areas. This becomes much more obvious once you start your finish steps.

If you're feeling the heat through the sandpaper, you're sanding too fast.

Sanding at too high a speed can actually burnish (harden) the wood which makes it even more difficult to sand out the scratches.

AAW National News

New Officer Webinar/Conference call

American Association of Woodturners will be hosting a chapter officer webinar/conference call on January 8, 2019. This is especially beneficial to new officers of a chapter. Details are in the email you should have received from AAW. If you can't make the conference call, a recorded version is available on the AAW website.

chapter scholarships available now

AAW is offering chapter scholarships to craft schools. Twenty-eight scholarships to selected chapter members will be awarded. Half will be for the Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts located in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. The other half will go to the John C Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina. Chapters must nominate interested members no later than January 7th, 2019. I know, this is awfully late notice. I just got the notification January 4th, so either I missed an earlier announcement or somebody dropped the ball at AAW. More details are available by contacting AAW directly.